Reflections on Narrative Approaches to Moral Development

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Abstract
Recent narrative, contextual, and postmodern approaches to the study of moral development are examined relative to Kohlberg’s justice-based theory of moral development. The comparison proceeds along five dimensions – values relevance, legitimacy, universality, rationality, and commensurability. Contrary to Kohlberg’s alternatives, narrative approaches may lead to contradiction in terms of epistemology, to nihilism in terms of moral choices, and to opportunism in terms of psychological and social relationships. Although of value as a means for understanding human experiences of conflict and moral choice, narrative approaches run the risk of losing their contextual and nonnormative character when they become theories of moral development.

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